In current manufacturing processes, wet shaving or razor cartridges are generally assembled on production lines dedicated to a particular type of razor cartridge. Some known assembly machine layouts include machines which are synchronous, non-synchronous, or continuous which may have in-line indexing, dial (e.g., rotary) or carousel capabilities.
On these types of production lines, in-process cartridges are transported, either by indexing or continuous motion, to the dedicated assembly stations such as stations 12 and 14 shown in FIG. 1 and stations 14 and 16 in a known dial or rotary based assembly machine layout 18 shown in FIG. 1A. For instance, dedicated assembly station 12 (and similarly station 14) generally handles only one type of component, the same component (e.g., a cap) over and over again, while dedicated assembly station 14 (and similar station 16) generally will handle only one type of component (e.g., a blade) over and over again. Thus, each station is designed to handle or deal with only one type of particular component (e.g., a cap) and as such, is configured to grasp and subsequently release only one type of component. At these stations, whether in an in-line or rotary production line of FIG. 1 or FIG. 1A, the components (e.g., a cap or a blade), required for the completion of the assembly of the cartridge, are added to the cartridge.
Thus, the operations of these types of production lines are generally sequential in nature (for intermittent, continuous, and asynchronous assembly methods), since a razor cartridge component moves along from station to station where each station performs a discrete operation (e.g., adding a cap to the cartridge housing) until a razor cartridge is formed.
These stations perform the assembly with custom, precision, and often unique tooling equipment such as cams and levers. Dedicated feed systems F1, F2, F3, and F4 as shown in FIGS. 1 and F5, F6, F7, F8, and F9 as shown in FIG. 2, may not only provide individual components to the assembly machine, but may also remove completed assemblies from the machine. Such feed systems may also oftentimes also require with custom, precision, and often unique tooling. These feed systems are generally “hard-connected” to the machine, in that they are connected both mechanically and electrically. Thus, generally manufacturing processes of these assembly machine types are by their very nature typically designed or dedicated to just one razor product family. That is, one assembly machine is generally dedicated to making one type of product, (e.g., razor cartridge, razor handle, etc.) for one product family, for instance the Gillette® Sensor® product family. This machine would not in turn be easily transferrable to or capable of being used for any other product family or families, such as the Gillette® Venus®, Gillette® Mach3®, or Gillette® Fusion® product families, nor vice-versa.
Thus, this type of process or design presents a major disadvantage with limited flexibility for making changes in manufacturing, such as changes that may be needed for producing cartridges for different product families or changing the operation layout within the same assembly machine and/or feed system.
For instance, if demand is low for one particular product family, but high for another, the low demand product's assembly machine may be dormant but because the dormant assembly machine is generally only dedicated by design to handle one particular type of device or product family, it most probably could not be utilized to assist in producing the high demand product.
Another disadvantage of this type of equipment is generally that the cost of capital may be very high, as every new product may necessarily require its own customized and newly designed tooling, and the equipment for prior products may, in all likelihood, not be reusable for new product families.
One potential solution that may improve flexibility may be to program robots (e.g., non-synchronous pallet based or stand-alone robots) at each assembly station which may typically include vision driven systems. While robots may advantageously provide an increase in flexibility they may be slower or have reduced precision over the known dedicated assembly and feeding systems which are generally expeditiously optimized, and they may come with a significant initial capital and cost investment along with substantial upfront custom designing.
Thus, there is at least a need to improve the manufacturing processes to obtain more flexibility across product families.